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East Rift Zone on Kilauea

A
rift zone is a feature of some volcanoes, especially the shield volcanoes of Hawaii, in which a
linear series of fissure in the
volcanic edifice allows lava to be erupted from
the volcano's flank instead of from its summit.For example, in the
currently ongoing eruption of Kilauea lava is
emitted continuously from the Pu u Ō ō vent located in Kilauea's East Rift Zone roughly
15 km east of Kilauea Crater. Rift zones tend to extend
for tens of kilometers radially outward from the volcanic summit;
most Hawaiian volcanoes have two or sometimes three of them. The
accumulated lava of repeated eruptions from rift zones causes many
Hawaiian volcanoes to have an elongated shape. Perhaps the best
example of this is Mauna
Loa, which in Hawaiian
means "long mountain".

The origin of the fractures that comprise the rift zones is
spreading of the volcano. The more material a shield volcano
accumulates, the heavier it gets, and it begins to settle due to
the simple effects of gravity. The surface spreads and
ruptures

The reason lava often erupts from the flanks of Hawaiian volcanoes
is gravity: it is easier for liquid lava, which is heavy, to flow
laterally out the sides of a mountain than to be pushed up an
additional several hundred or several thousand meters in elevation
to be erupted from the summit. These systems of fissures that make
up a rift zone allow this to happen more easily.